Orlando senator files bill to bring back death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidiqAIhF-SpqDKygL7KuCvlLKMfbmKl8mtpwRJbjgECCLr7I4pAM18jzub6nwXBwK2keiIkLFlwou9T3vw7kx6tHsfw0dQlIUT61Lb9OCF5eb-qD7MSsRQ5QXOLVfbj-fRR7m0g1ZkHFk/s1600/Death+Penalty+News+deathpenaltynews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidiqAIhF-SpqDKygL7KuCvlLKMfbmKl8mtpwRJbjgECCLr7I4pAM18jzub6nwXBwK2keiIkLFlwou9T3vw7kx6tHsfw0dQlIUT61Lb9OCF5eb-qD7MSsRQ5QXOLVfbj-fRR7m0g1ZkHFk/s400/Death+Penalty+News+deathpenaltynews.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hoping to reinstate the death penalty in Florida, a Democratic state senator from Orlando filed a bill Friday that would require juries to be unanimous in condemning a killer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If approved, the measure (SB 280) by Sen. Randolph Bracy could end delayed trials and confusion over a Florida Supreme Court ruling in October that struck down the state's capital punishment law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawmakers last year tried to fix the death penalty law by requiring a 10-2 jury vote for death sentences, but the court's ruling said a 12-0 vote was needed. The Senate preferred a unanimous jury, but the House and state prosecutors wanted more leeway.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Supreme Court has kind of set the direction that we need to go in, so I think there'll be more buy-in from the House," said Bracy, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No bill has been filed in the House yet, but House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, said his panel will hold hearings on the issue next week. He wants to look at the entire death penalty statute for possible changes, not just the unanimous jury provision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's a pronged analysis that goes into every death penalty case," said Sprowls, a former prosecutor who has tried capital murder cases. "We're going to view each one of those independently and collaboratively and figure out the best scheme to serve Floridians."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawmakers say the issue is among their top priorities and that delays of murder trials are plaguing the courts. Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said about 200 cases are affected by the death penalty's status in limbo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think its paramount for the victims' families for cases to be fairly adjudicated without delay," Negron said. He added that he hopes for a Senate vote soon after the legislative session that begins March 7.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The issue stretches back to January 2016, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty law because it allowed a judge to issue a death sentence after taking into account a jury's recommendation. Under the old law, a 7-5 majority recommendation was enough to recommend death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Except for Alabama and Florida, all of the 32 states with capital punishment require a unanimous vote for death. Florida was one of five states that executed a prisoner in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Legislature responded by passing the 10-2 jury vote law. That was then declared unconstitutional as well by the Florida Supreme Court's October ruling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But even if lawmakers pass a new law this year, courts could be grappling with the fallout in the future. The court's October ruling didn't specify what should happen to ongoing capital murder cases or whether those on death row who weren't sentenced by a unanimous jury have grounds for an appeal of their sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bracy said he believes the Legislature should declare the unanimous jury provision to apply retroactively, but he hasn't included it in his bill. That would give every prisoner on death row sentenced to death by a split jury the grounds to appeal for a life sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state's highest court compounded the confusion this week when it issued an order telling prosecutors they couldn't seek the death penalty in ongoing murder trials, only to vacate the order hours later. A court spokesman later said the order was "prematurely issued."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The episode came a day after a judge for Brevard and Seminole counties empaneled a jury for the sentencing phase of a murder trial, thinking he could move forward by telling the jury a death sentence had to be unanimous.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sprowls said the ambiguity of the law is causing "paralysis" in the trial courts. Judges are typically allowed to issue alternate jury instructions to comply with a court order that updates existing laws, he said, but it doesn't seem like the Florida Supreme Court will allow that to happen in this case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think that you have a court that is clearly demonstrating a systematic hostility towards the death penalty in general," Sprowls said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the death warrants and oversaw the executions of 23 prisoners since he took office in 2011 - the most of any governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, isn't pressing lawmakers for an answer to the situation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A spokeswoman for Scott said his office is still reviewing the Florida Supreme Court ruling, but wouldn't say if he has a preference for how the law should be fixed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the families of murder victims, the 384 prisoners on death row, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges are waiting on a resolution. Groups that oppose the death penalty are also awaiting the outcome, but are pleased the courts are moving toward making it harder to get the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's also put a de facto moratorium on executions, as Scott hasn't signed a death warrant since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ingrid Delgado of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops noted that Saturday marks one year since the last prisoner, Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., was executed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is another reminder that executions are not needed to keep society safe," Delgado said.</div><br />Source: Orlando Sentinel, January 7, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Orlando senator files bill to bring back death penalty

Hoping to reinstate the death penalty in Florida, a Democratic state senator from Orlando filed a bill Friday that would require juries to b...

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Pakistan: The love of hanging

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s1600/Gallows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Gallows" border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s400/Gallows.jpg" title="Gallows" width="400" /></a></div>Pakistan chose to vote against the recent resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that had called for a global moratorium on the death penalty and was adopted by a majority of member-states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gist of this resolution has been adopted by the UN General Assembly every 2 years since 2007. The resolution adopted on Dec 19, 2016 was backed by 117 states, while 40 voted against it and 31 abstained. As against the voting pattern in 2014, the new supporters of the moratorium call were Guinea, Malawi, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Swaziland.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Asia maintained its fondness for the death penalty as Pakistan joined Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Maldives in rejecting a universal moratorium, while Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka voted in favour.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who defend the death penalty as a principle enjoined by Islam may look at the division among the Muslim states (the category includes all members of the OIC).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those voting in favour of a moratorium included: Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bosnia Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Suriname, Togo, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who abstained included: Bahrain, Cameroon, Comoros, Djibouti, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and the UAE.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Muslim states that voted against were: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Guyana, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We find that 24 of the OIC's 57 member states voted in favour of the moratorium, while 13 abstained and only 18 voted against. In other words, Pakistan is in the minority group of 18 OIC member-countries that opposes the moratorium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is for Pakistan's government and its Islamic scholars to ponder as to why a majority of the OIC members do not find any faith-based bar to the acceptance of a moratorium on capital punishment. They may also consider the possibility that, as in the case of some international treaties, reservations expressed in the name of religion are in fact dictated by the culture or custom of the countries concerned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What is more distressing for human rights activists, abolitionist groups and promoters of humanitarian laws in Pakistan is the authorities' aversion to any scrutiny of the rationale for their love of the death penalty regime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What one hears of references to the death penalty during the Universal Periodic Review or at talks with the European Union on the GSP+ status is not the result of any serious deliberation. Indeed, one doubts if any discussion on the subject has ever taken place in Pakistan. That there is an urgent need for such a discussion can easily be established.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The recent cases in which the Supreme Court acquitted two individuals who had already been executed, or ordered the release of persons who had spent long years on death row, have strengthened the call for abolition of the death penalty on the ground of high risk of miscarriage of justice. A number of other issues that have surfaced over the past many years also need to be addressed. These are:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The view that the death sentence is not a deterrent to crime has not been challenged nor has the view that hangings brutalise society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The Qisas law has prevented the president from pardoning death convicts or commuting their sentence although his power to do so under Article 45 of the Constitution remains intact. How does one explain the fact that the army chief can pardon a person awarded the death sentence by a military court while the president cannot do so?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The scholars agree that Islam prescribes the death penalty in only 2 instances. How does the state defend the fact that capital punishment is prescribed for 27 offences in the name of religion?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The judiciary has pointed out the problems it faces in cases in which capital punishment is mandatory if the evidence on record warrants a lesser penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The possibility of a minor or a mentally challenged person being executed keeps cropping up every now and then.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One ventures to suggest a look at the Indian response to the issue of the death penalty in view of the shared legal tradition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Law Commission of India recommended in August 2015, vide its Report No. 262, that "the death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism-related offences and waging war". The commission agreed to retain capital punishment for certain offences in view of the parliamentarians' plea that "abolition of death penalty for terrorism-related offences and waging war will affect national security", although in the commission's view "there is no valid penological justification for treating terrorism differently from other crimes."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The commission noted the significant steps taken during India's decades-long efforts to restrict the use of the death penalty: removal of the requirement of giving special reasons for awarding life imprisonment instead of death (1955); introduction of the requirement of imposing the death penalty (1973); and the Supreme Court's decision that the death penalty should be restricted to the rarest of rare cases (1980). The conclusion reached by the commission was:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Informed also by the expanded and deepened contents and horizons of the right to life and strengthened due process requirements in the interactions between the state and the individual, prevailing standards of constitutional morality and human dignity, the commission feels that time has come for India to move towards abolition of the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the latest debate in the UN General Assembly, however, India again voted against the resolution calling for a moratorium although it could have shown some respect for the Law Commission's recommendation by abstaining. Which only goes to show that, in developing countries, state policies are often determined by authorities that are too timid to disturb the status quo or too proud of their conservatism to heed the counsel of experts who are conscious of the call of the age.</div><br />Source: dawn.com, January 6, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Pakistan: Reviewing the death penalty</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMrehjtnKWFCuyKdj8RCaoNR8xtTkR8f5XYwT9Vri3mpFfiaSO3xNRb0uLpRpxDhE3qOg7eG3b_207J_3H2hz2zyf5Y1lA5r8zAoj5rhmAAufnOv7X9Q4JaEcmcvvo-Wc-JDAkabngPM/s1600/Peshawar+Central+Prison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Peshawar Central Prison" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMrehjtnKWFCuyKdj8RCaoNR8xtTkR8f5XYwT9Vri3mpFfiaSO3xNRb0uLpRpxDhE3qOg7eG3b_207J_3H2hz2zyf5Y1lA5r8zAoj5rhmAAufnOv7X9Q4JaEcmcvvo-Wc-JDAkabngPM/s400/Peshawar+Central+Prison.jpg" title="Peshawar Central Prison" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The first thing you notice about the death penalty is how much preparation is involved. In two years, Pakistan has carried out 419 executions. 419 death row prisoners wore a hood as six warders accompanied them to the scaffold each time. 419 bodies remained suspended for 30 minutes after being hanged. Some of these bodies likely ended up in prison graveyards, unable to break free from jails even in death.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On December 17, 2014, Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in the wake of the tragic terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. Originally lifted for terrorism related offences in March 2015, the moratorium was lifted for all capital offences. In the face of international opposition, the government has consistently maintained that the death penalty is the only effective means of fighting terrorism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, an analysis of the 419 executions that have occurred in less than 2 years by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a rights group, reveals significant flaws in this narrative. In Pakistan, criminal culpability is at best, widely misunderstood and at worst, casually measured with irreversible consequences. The numbers that confirm this are frightening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">27 offences are liable for a black warrant in this country, explaining the macabre achievement of having one of the world’s most populated death rows.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 100th prisoner to be hanged after executions resumed was mentally ill, unaware until his death as to why he was being punished. Undiagnosed until 2014, Muneer Hussain was mentally unwell since childhood and later, killed two family members.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There have been at least six juveniles executed since the moratorium was lifted in December 2014. Between then and March 2016, at least 444 mercy petitions were sent to the President of Pakistan, including one for schizophrenic prisoner, Imdad Ali and Abdul Basit who is a paraplegic prisoner. So far, the known number of presidential pardons granted stands at zero.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Pakistan, the judicial system that enables the carrying out of death sentences warrants close examination. The legal infrastructure is faulty, mired in red tape, beholden to power, creating a permissive environment for the routine miscarriage of justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In November this year, the Supreme Court exercised its suo moto right to reassess a case of kidnapping in Bahawalpur in Punjab, for which two brothers had been sentenced to death. Unsurprisingly, the prosecution’s case was riddled with contradictions, with insufficient evidence and incongruous eyewitness testimonies, and the SC acquitted the condemned prisoners. Only Ghulam Qadir and Ghulam Sarwar were no longer prisoners, having been executed last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given the Bahawalpur case, it is critical to overhaul a system that hangs the living, and exonerates the dead. The dearth of resources for law-enforcement incentivises corruption and other abuses of authority. Police lack forensic capabilities and other reliable means of investigation. As a result, there is over-reliance on confessions, easily obtained through torture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1,424 cases of torture have been uncovered in just one district of Faisalabad from 2006 to 2012, according to Justice Project Pakistan</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">444 mercy petitions have been sent to the president between Dec 2014 and March 2016; none have been granted so far</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">JPP uncovered 1,424 cases of torture in just one district of Faisalabad from 2006 to 2012. At 17, Abd-ur-Rehman was subject to such brutal torture following his detention that he admitted to every accusation levied at him, including being told that his name was Azam. Today, no one in Karachi Central Jail, where he remains imprisoned, knows him by the name he was born with. His involvement in an attempted burglary has kept him on death row for the last 18 years — well over half his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Every defendant is entitled to effective legal counsel at all stages of proceedings under the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a signatory. Though Pakistan provides needy capital defendants with counsel at state expense, the quality of representation is poor. In fact, it is generally not perceived as acceptable for lawyers to be seen in a jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such scant contact between lawyers and their clients in criminal cases actively enables the miscarriage of justice, given the former essentially forgoes the chances of uncovering potentially exculpatory evidence. But with a fee below the minimum wage (a minimum of Rs2,000, with a daily fee of Rs200), there is little motivation for a state-appointed attorney to pursue a case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">International law dictates that capital punishment be reserved only for the most serious crimes, subject to fair and legitimate processes that protect a defendant’s basic rights and provide avenues for post-conviction relief. Pakistan has not lived up to its obligations. At each stage of a defendant’s encounter with this system, severe violations emerge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Calling for anything short of a complete moratorium on executions means the continued killing of individuals whose rights have repeatedly been violated from the time of their arrest to their conviction and beyond. Sending even one innocent person – and the government sent two in the Bahawalpur case – to the gallows should prompt this step.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given these systemic failings, legal reforms, while an important first step, are inadequately implemented at the local level. An executive mechanism to examine mercy petitions must be assembled which refers credible mercy petitions to the presidency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because of the lack of transparency, it is recommended that independent actors such as the National Human Rights Commission, a statutory body constituted under the National Human Rights Commission Act 2012, conduct investigations into cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wrongful and unjust death sentences must be commuted. Because the death sentence warrants a high standard of proof, the state should also commute cases for individuals whose convictions were based primarily on confessions, in recognition of the high prevalence of custodial torture and inadequate safeguards in place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Passing the Anti-Torture Bill, which has been pending since 2012, would be a good place to start. In short, Pakistan’s criminal justice system needs to undertake a detailed review of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1303817" target="_blank">Dawn</a>, Rimmel Mohydin, Zainab Malik, December 22, 2016. Rimmel Mohydin and Zainab Malik work on public and policy advocacy at Justice Project Pakistan.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Pakistan: The love of hanging

Pakistan chose to vote against the recent resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that had called for a global moratorium on the d...

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Washington death-row inmate Dwayne A. Woods dies of cardiac arrest

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQl2yx_8knnxkfvAqQRarossgVOKCyaeAgFDtkxP2MbPVEKCyKA5b38sMdR3fEqMFb8ojBY_Su2j0zrEkEO-IuPDuoGfkdtd4y0Wafg-0Eckh-HsLt93Y1XR6u66QxRVmIKOpTD31KAc/s1600/Dwayne+A.+Woods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dwayne A. Woods" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQl2yx_8knnxkfvAqQRarossgVOKCyaeAgFDtkxP2MbPVEKCyKA5b38sMdR3fEqMFb8ojBY_Su2j0zrEkEO-IuPDuoGfkdtd4y0Wafg-0Eckh-HsLt93Y1XR6u66QxRVmIKOpTD31KAc/s320/Dwayne+A.+Woods.jpg" title="Dwayne A. Woods" width="256" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dwayne A. Woods</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Dwayne A. Woods was convicted in 1997 of killing two women in Spokane Valley.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the nine people on Washington state’s death row has died of cardiac arrest, while in a medical facility for a chronic illness, according to the state Department of Corrections.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dwayne A. Woods, 46, sentenced to death nearly 20 years ago, died Sunday night at the Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, according to the Department of Corrections, which noted that he had been under observation for a chronic illness. The department news release gave no other details about his medical condition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An autopsy will be performed, the news release said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Woods, who was in the state prison in Walla Walla, was convicted in June 1997 on two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the killings of Telisha Shaver, 22, and Jade Moore, 18.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shaver and Moore were raped and beaten on the head with a baseball bat in a Spokane Valley mobile home in April 1996, according to The Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The two women knew Woods, then 25, because he had been dating Shaver’s sister.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Jay Inslee in 2014 announced a moratorium on state executions, saying the way the death penalty is applied is too flawed to let more go forward.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inslee last week <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2016/12/washington-governor-jay-inslee-grants.html" target="_blank">signed a reprieve for Clark Richard Elmore</a>, who had been convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter, Kristy Ohnstad, in Bellingham in 1995. Elmore will remain in prison for life. With his legal appeals exhausted, Elmore’s execution had been scheduled for Jan. 19.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite Inslee’s moratorium, executions are still part of state law, so any reprieves require that Inslee exercise his authority as governor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No execution date had been set for Woods.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Source: <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/washington-death-row-inmate-dies-of-cardiac-arrest/" target="_blank">Seattle Times</a>, Seattle Times staff, January 2, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Washington death-row inmate Dwayne A. Woods dies of cardiac arrest

Dwayne A. Woods Dwayne A. Woods was convicted in 1997 of killing two women in Spokane Valley. One of the nine people on Washington state’s d...

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Philippines: A moral, ethical issue for our people

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-sjP1LRymXP7DA6y7GXHOiwI1gpD_jv2Z7bXXCk94fjdYp07j6dzT4HGlc76g4raj7lwR_fkhFsNrKuHxvm4bMXbKB9xH8YmrTNeFaZWkp_Cj519ziB93gSYWswsM1Og90T4K1J-le8/s1600/Philippines+police+officers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-sjP1LRymXP7DA6y7GXHOiwI1gpD_jv2Z7bXXCk94fjdYp07j6dzT4HGlc76g4raj7lwR_fkhFsNrKuHxvm4bMXbKB9xH8YmrTNeFaZWkp_Cj519ziB93gSYWswsM1Og90T4K1J-le8/s400/Philippines+police+officers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the ongoing discussion on the death penalty, which President Duterte wants to return so as to strengthen the rule of law, it is useful to note that the world - and the Philippines with it - has long debated this issue in the United Nations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1966, the UN General Assembly, of which the Philippines is a founding member, adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which, together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, make up what is known as the International Bill of Human Rights. The Philippines signed the ICCPR on December 19, 1966, and ratified it on October 23, 1986.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1989, the General Assembly adopted the Second Protocol on Civil and Political Rights, calling on all states to abolish the death penalty. The Protocol was a treaty signed by 83 states, including the Philippines. The Philippines signed the Protocol on September 20, 2006, and ratified it on September 20, 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In between these 2 international agreements, the Philippines became the 1st Asian country to abolish the death penalty when the nation ratified the Constitution in 1987, but Congress could reimpose it should the need arise. In 1993, such a law was passed to address the rising criminality in the country. 7 convicts were executed in 1999, followed by a moratorium in observance of the Catholic Church's "Jubilee Year." In 2003, 2 men were about to be executed when new evidence came up that exonerated the 2.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All the while, the Commission on Human Rights vehemently opposed efforts to reimpose the death penalty. It said it was not convinced that the death penalty is the answer to rising criminality. The proper response, it said, lies in effective law enforcement, quick and impartial delivery of justice, and a responsive penal system. "To mete out to criminals the very final and irrevocable and inhuman verdict of death is tantamount to punishing them for the failure of the system," it declared.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today we are again in the middle of debate on the death penalty. Right after he won the presidential election last May, President Duterte said he wanted Congress to restore the death penalty - by hanging - for convicts involved in illegal drugs, gun-for-hire syndicates, and for those who commit "heinous crimes" like rapists and robbers who kill their victims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are also in the middle of a nationwide anti-drug campaign in which thousands have already been killed, many allegedly for resisting arrest - moving some to ask if there is still need for a death penalty to discourage criminals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The critical debate on this issue will soon be taking place in the halls of Congress. Along with all the legal arguments and all the Philippines' commitments to the international community, the Church has also weighed in against the ancient system of "a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." More than a legal issue, it will be a moral and ethical one which will determine what we really are as a people.</div><br />Source: tempo.com.ph, Editorial, December 30, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Philippines: A moral, ethical issue for our people

In the ongoing discussion on the death penalty, which President Duterte wants to return so as to strengthen the rule of law, it is useful to...

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Washington Governor Jay Inslee grants reprieve to child killer on death row

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUm1vRnmAgvN9ZpfVCWGfzhs0RARxd1pREQhfW9IrBh_v6XHnPqYcW-NYTIlZMw_H8Au3For8tyy8jXlPiqD1y2nVR-1jJgE2u5Q2wl8fmNPIdIigiIDPd68TCIJ75FvZXo-909PJah58/s1600/Washington+Gov+Jay+Inslee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Washington Governor Jay Inslee" border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUm1vRnmAgvN9ZpfVCWGfzhs0RARxd1pREQhfW9IrBh_v6XHnPqYcW-NYTIlZMw_H8Au3For8tyy8jXlPiqD1y2nVR-1jJgE2u5Q2wl8fmNPIdIigiIDPd68TCIJ75FvZXo-909PJah58/s400/Washington+Gov+Jay+Inslee.jpg" title="Washington Governor Jay Inslee" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Washington Governor Jay Inslee</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">BELLINGHAM - Gov. Jay Inslee granted a reprieve Thursday to a Bellingham man sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Whatcom County jury sentenced Clark Richard Elmore to death in 1996, for the killing of his girlfriend’s teenage daughter. Elmore raped Kristy Lynn Ohnstad in a van, choked her until she passed out, drove a metal skewer through her skull, beat her with a sledgehammer, and dumped her body in the woods. She was 14.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the past two decades Elmore has appealed to successively higher courts. In October the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case. An execution date was set for Jan. 19.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inslee formally granted a reprieve Thursday. Two years ago earlier he had announced a moratorium on death sentences in Washington state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Governor Inslee has been very consistent that his moratorium on the death penalty cases in Washington isn’t about individual cases,” reads a statement released Thursday by the governor’s office. “As he stated when he announced the moratorium in 2014 the action is based on the governor’s belief that the use of capital punishment across the state is inconsistent and unequally applied — sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutor Dave McEachran met with Inslee last week to ask him to consider making an exception and allow the execution to proceed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kristy’s family spoke with Inslee, too, and “expressed a preference to see Elmore serve life in prison,” according to the governor’s office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Elmore will remain at the state prison in Walla Walla, where he’s effectively serving a life sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gov. Jay’s Inslee office released the following statement:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">Under state law, Article III, Section 9 of the Washington Constitution and RCW 10.01.120, the governor is granted the authority to issue reprieves — or stays of execution— and, consistent with his intent to issue a moratorium on death penalty executions, Governor Inslee has issued a reprieve in Clark Elmore’s case. This action does not commute Mr. Elmore’s sentence nor issue a pardon and he will remain in the State Penitentiary in Walla Walla for the rest of his life. In recent weeks the governor spoke with the Whatcom County prosecutor, who asked the governor to reconsider his position, as well as the victim’s family who expressed a preference to see Elmore serve life in prison.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">Governor Inslee has been very consistent that his moratorium on the death penalty cases in Washington isn’t about individual cases. As he stated when he announced the moratorium in 2014 the action is based on the governor’s belief that the use of capital punishment across the state is inconsistent and unequally applied – sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">The governor urges the state legislature to end the death penalty once and for all. </blockquote><br />Sources: <a href="http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article123674119.html" target="_blank">The News Tribune</a>, <a href="http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/gov-jay-inslee-grants-reprieve-in-child-murderers-execution/479777125" target="_blank">Kiro7</a>, December 29, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Washington Governor Jay Inslee grants reprieve to child killer on death row

Washington Governor Jay Inslee BELLINGHAM - Gov. Jay Inslee granted a reprieve Thursday to a Bellingham man sentenced to death for the rape ...

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United Nations Confirm Request of Universal Moratorium on Executions

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s1600/Gallows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Gallows" border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s400/Gallows.jpg" title="Gallows" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">December 19, 2016: The General Assembly of the United Nations confirmed the demand for an end to the death penalty by the vote of a new resolution calling on states to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the practice. This is the sixth pro-moratorium text adopted since 2007. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new resolution was adopted with 117 votes in favor (as in 2014), 40 no (two more than the 38 of 2014), while the abstainers were 31 (3 less than in 2014) and 5 absent at the time of vote (one more than in 2014). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although the text contains an amendment, voted in the Third Committee in November on a proposal of Singapore, referring to the prerogatives of States to decide which type of punishment to impose in the face of the most serious crimes, the positive steps in strengthening the text are definitely more relevant. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for new votes in favor, coming mostly from the African continent and from countries that abstained before, they were those of Guinea, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, as well as that of the Solomon Islands and Sri Lanka. It casted a vote in favor also Nauru, that in 2014 was absent. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zimbabwe went from a contrary vote to one of abstention. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of Hands Off Cain said: "I want to remind that the votes in favor for the first time in Swaziland and Malawi were the result of a mission of Hands Off Cain, with the support of the Italian Foreign Ministry. The mission was aimed exactly to get a favorable vote in the General Assembly, and in 2014 Zimbabwe had been a target country of our mission." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[S]trengthened the front of no Burundi and South Sudan, previously in favor, and the Maldives, previously abstained. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Passed from a vote in favor to a vote of abstention the Philippines, Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Niger, while Lesotho, absent in 2014, abstained this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the absentees are the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal, both abstained in 2014, and Rwanda, formerly in favor. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This year's resolution has been strengthened in the part that requires states to "make available the relevant information about the use of the death penalty" (among other things, disaggregated by sex, age and race data, and also the number of prisoners on death row, and information about scheduled executions). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The General Assembly for the first time recognized the role that national human rights bodies to support local, national and regional debates on the death penalty. The Assembly for the first time highlighted the need for those who risk the death penalty to be treated with humanity and with respect for their dignity, in accordance with the international law on human rights. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The confirmation of the votes in favor of a universal moratorium on capital punishment is very important in a time when, faced with the emergency of terrorism, there is the danger of abdicating to the principles of law rather than strengthen them. The General Assembly vote shows us that we must continue to work to raise the threshold for the protection of human dignity in compliance with international treaties” said Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of Hands Off Cain. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">D’Elia concluded: “The new vote at the Palace of Glass, the sixth at the General Assembly in nine years, demonstrates that the path of dialogue, liberal and anti-prohibitionist, of the moratorium - and not the outright abolition of the death penalty - which since 1993 Hands Off Cain and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty have chosen to propose in all international fora, has proved to be the main way to overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable , and open doors that otherwise be inaccessible”. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sources: <a href="http://www.handsoffcain.info/news/index.php?iddocumento=20318287" target="_blank">Hands Off Cain</a>, December 19, 2016</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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United Nations Confirm Request of Universal Moratorium on Executions

December 19, 2016: The General Assembly of the United Nations confirmed the demand for an end to the death penalty by the vote of a new reso...

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Florida Supreme Court: More than 200 death row inmates were given unconstitutional death sentences

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXHx0jB50_JysJNyjnEtEWG5ewkqOUUj-mn43ylF-sYZLM3f-Rf_ltoLJNCODzeR51VPcgiTy8ovD9ETka0jeJ2NSuw7o2criI-p7nrByVuJBdu1-gg8F4Vpy_4NEwgpkQtFUjq4SiE0/s1600/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Florida's death chamber" border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXHx0jB50_JysJNyjnEtEWG5ewkqOUUj-mn43ylF-sYZLM3f-Rf_ltoLJNCODzeR51VPcgiTy8ovD9ETka0jeJ2NSuw7o2criI-p7nrByVuJBdu1-gg8F4Vpy_4NEwgpkQtFUjq4SiE0/s400/Florida+death+chamber.jpg" title="Florida's death chamber" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Florida's death chamber</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that more than half the people on Florida's death row are entitled to a new sentencing hearing because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that found the state's death penalty unconstitutional.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision covers more than 200 inmates — and includes all of those who were sentenced after 2002 or whose appeals were not final by that year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is a legal decision that death row inmates, prosecutors, defense attorneys and the families of murder victims have awaited since January, when it became clear that Florida needed to rework its death penalty statute to bring it into line with the way other states handled those cases, specifically by requiring that juries — not judges —make the key findings required to impose a death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It also suggests that trial courts across Florida are about to be swamped by death row inmates, asking to be resentenced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All those resentencings would be a Herculean task for trial judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys across the state, said Orange-Osceola Public Defender Robert Wesley who predicted that they could create a backlog that might take ten years to unjam.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ruling applies to more than 40 Central Florida convicted murderers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They include Bessman Okafor, who in 2012 murdered an Orange County man who was about to testify against him at a home invasion trial; ax murderer John Buzia, a handyman convicted of killing an elderly Seminole County man in 2004; and Michael Gordon Reynolds, who beat and stabbed to death a Seminole County father, mother and 11-year-old daughter in the community of Geneva in 1998.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">A moratorium since January</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thursday's decision is the result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By a vote of 8-1, that court ruled that jurors – not a judge – must specifically identify why someone convicted of a capital crime should be put to death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That case involved Timothy Lee Hurst, a Pensacola man convicted of murdering his boss at a Popeyes Fried Chicken restaurant in 1998 with a box cutter then putting her body in a freezer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The high court found that Florida's death penalty statute was unconstitutional but left it to the Florida Supreme Court to decide whether the ruling should apply retroactively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state has not executed an inmate since then.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state supreme court has issued several death penalty rulings in the interim. Some hinted that it would interpret the Hurst decision broadly but each stopped short of spelling it out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday, that changed. The court laid it out: Every death penalty handed down in Florida since 2002 is unconstitutional. That's 55 percent of the state's death row population.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's because in 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling – Ring v. Arizona – that generally said the same thing to the state of Arizona that the high court said to Florida in the Hurst decision 14 years later: Juries – not judges – must decide whether the death penalty is appropriate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the factors the Florida Supreme Court had to take into consideration was how disruptive to the day-to-day workings of Florida's court system their decision would be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Invalidating every death sentence as unconstitutional, the justices concluded, would be too burdensome. That's why they limited it to those inmates who were sentenced after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Ring decision in 2002.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even so, Thursday's decision suggests that any Florida inmate who was given the death penalty after the 2002 is entitled to be resentenced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That would require a mini-trial in each case at which a new jury would listen to evidence then rule whether the evidence justified the death penalty.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-florida-death-penalty-asay-20161222-story.html" target="_blank">Orlando Sentinel</a>, Rene Stutzman and Gal Tziperman Lotan, December 22, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Florida Supreme Court: More than 200 death row inmates were given unconstitutional death sentences

Florida's death chamber The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that more than half the people on Florida's death row are entitl...

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Think Centre, Forum Asia call for Singapore to vote for resolution on moratorium on use of death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocSMMi9QykL1JPSIggU-Bd-Rk2XYOaYkzWoEpPl1l524ZhGIHzm2ruORxZVsKrS7WgGZBNKAi6zYu3uKUT536fW7qt8gnTEBItybSBqUu7uU9n5lC21w19mPYAApSpwBuUj6PzzvE9b4/s1600/UN_Headquarters_NYC_USA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UN Headquarters NYC" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocSMMi9QykL1JPSIggU-Bd-Rk2XYOaYkzWoEpPl1l524ZhGIHzm2ruORxZVsKrS7WgGZBNKAi6zYu3uKUT536fW7qt8gnTEBItybSBqUu7uU9n5lC21w19mPYAApSpwBuUj6PzzvE9b4/s400/UN_Headquarters_NYC_USA.jpg" title="UN Headquarters NYC" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, 19 December 2016, in New York, the 193 member nations of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will vote on the resolution "Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Singapore has in the past shown little interest in human rights, and the government has always maintained broad powers to limit them. But since 1995 it has ratified 4 and signed 2 UN treaties. It has been trying to show that it does pay attention to the human rights practices within the country. The Think Centre and human rights groups view the "human rights framework" as applicable to all areas of governance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today's Singapore is gradually a party to more human rights conventions and wants to be recognised by its international peers for its efforts. This is good for international trade and rightly it should also be seen as good business sense. However, it should abandon any misguided hopes of undermining enshrined human rights principles in practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Singapore laws, especially on the death penalty, are rooted in our colonial history, which the colonial masters used to reign in, control and exploit a disunited colony of immigrants. Such archaic colonial practices and attitudes should be reviewed and removed from the penal code.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We believe that the main aim of the majority of the nations that seek to vote against the resolution is to keep tight control over political power. Many of them achieve this through impunity; unabated discrimination and mistreatment of its peoples, at the expense of the most vulnerable. Singapore, by far one of the most developed and relatively peaceful nations, stands out as an oddity in keeping company with this group of mostly suppressive nations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2015, 104 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 6 countries have abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes, and 30 countries are abolitionist in practice. Among the 58 retentionist countries and territories, only 25 countries carried out executions that year. Many countries that still retain the death penalty also do not carry out the sentences.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If Singapore wants to play the cautious conservative on the issue of enacting a moratorium, which is a clear commitment in recognising the sanctity of human life, it can abstain and watch as it falls behind in moral authority among its peers. The Think Centre, however, urges the Singapore government to rise up to the moral challenge and vote for the resolution on moratorium on the use of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United Nations resolution on moratorium on the use of the death penalty calls on countries to: Progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and reduce the number of offences for which it may be imposed; and establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty; and calls upon States which have abolished the death penalty not to reintroduce it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Think Centre, a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) and Forum Asia, is for the abolishing of the death penalty for all crimes.</div><br />Source: theonlinecitizen.com, December 18, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Think Centre, Forum Asia call for Singapore to vote for resolution on moratorium on use of death penalty

On Monday, 19 December 2016, in New York, the 193 member nations of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will vote on the resolution ...

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Indonesian Bishops call on Government for a moratorium on death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRzJcmnVZiSumu0b0ZTNqHwJ35QgtHBHgaziQsOJKl2wjefIopWHv12F-Kqsoh0ymCdgnjBXOvb3lgoRwHCKekcCHcqQD0aHSOTPMz3Q9PKNJUp588DebXy9NanR8vHDQDFfVq2HarEM/s1600/Indonesia+bullet-ridden+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRzJcmnVZiSumu0b0ZTNqHwJ35QgtHBHgaziQsOJKl2wjefIopWHv12F-Kqsoh0ymCdgnjBXOvb3lgoRwHCKekcCHcqQD0aHSOTPMz3Q9PKNJUp588DebXy9NanR8vHDQDFfVq2HarEM/s400/Indonesia+bullet-ridden+flag.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Indonesian Bishops have officially asked the government for a moratorium on the death penalty. As reported to Fides by Fr. Paulus Christian Siswantoko, executive secretary of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral Care of Migrants of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Indonesia, the letter sent to the executive states that "it is appropriate for the government to carefully assess the implementation of the death penalty in order to know the impact of capital punishment, and to ensure that executions have actually had the deterrent effects, discouraging crime". In an interview with Agenzia Fides, Fr. Siswantoko reiterated that the Catholic Church has repeatedly asked for a moratorium "but so far the government has not listened to the voices who reject capital punishment".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At a recent conference on the theme "Right to life and the death penalty in the theology of religions", Fr. Siswantoko said that "the Catholic Church still harbors hopes for a moratorium on the death penalty", citing religious but also civilian reasons.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In fact, according to the priest, Catholics reject the death penalty for the fundamental respect for life, as explained by the encyclical Evangelium Vitae of 1995, of Pope John Paul II. On the other hand "the death penalty is contrary to the Pancasila (the paper of the five underlying principles of the state, ed) and to the Indonesian Constitution, claiming the protection of life and fundamental human rights". "It was later shown that the death penalty does not reduce crime", he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since 2015 dozens of prisoners for drug offenses have been executed in Indonesia: "Has there been a significant impact and real deterrent effects?" asked the priest, noting that the spread and drug trafficking is a phenomenon at a national and international level.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the other speakers who intervened, Gomar Gultom, representative of the "Communion of Churches in Indonesia" confirmed the vision that "the death penalty has no deterrent effect and it is not an ethical tool". </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Muslim professor Siti Musdah Mulia, at the Islamic University "Syarif Hidayatullah" and secretary general of the Indonesian Conference on "Religions for Peace" recalled that Islam teaches human respect and protection from acts of discrimination, exploitation and violence. "The death penalty is inconsistent with religious teachings and faiths that revere the importance of life, preserving it as the greatest blessing of God the Creator. Islam teaches the dignity of human beings, defining them as the most perfect creatures of God. The death penalty is an affront to the greatness and omnipotence of God. "Finally, he said, "the death penalty is inconsistent with the values of democracy and the principles of human rights".</div><br />Source: Fides News Agency, December 14, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Indonesian Bishops call on Government for a moratorium on death penalty

The Indonesian Bishops have officially asked the government for a moratorium on the death penalty. As reported to Fides by Fr. Paulus Christ...

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